The Exiles: Future War
by LongRider
Summary: A world is at war and heroes are needed more than ever. Help arrives at the strangest time.
1. Teaser

Exiles 2.01 By LongRider

Disclaimer: This is my first attempt at a crossover fic. Be gentle with the reviews.

Teaser

A burst of bright light and incredible heat was the only warning before the world was captured in a fire worthy of the sun. When the sky finally wept for the scarred and beaten earth all was ash and death.

A few hours destruction would cost decades to repair. If the survivors could devote themselves to it.

Things didn't work out that way.

Now the only thing that mattered to the dwindling human race was survival.

Now there was a new threat.

The machines.

What remained of the human race were now engaged in a war with a creation of their own devising. Each year the machines grew in intelligence, efficiency and ingenuity and each year hundreds fell because of it.

This was a fact that was not lost on each of the 2 grim faced men who were hiding in the rubble.

They had been in the same spot for the last 3 hours, not moving a muscle, covered with pieces of debris and large quantities of dirt to successfully hide themselves from detection.

"Clear?" The larger man asked his partner.

"Clear." Came the firm reply.

"Make the call." With that the smaller of the 2 activated his comms kit and reached for his throat-mic.

"Oracle 1, Oracle 1, this is Bat 1, do you copy?" It was times like this that made waiting the worst. They could cope with an attack, or a new assignment, but waiting to hear from home, even for a few seconds gave free reign on the old fear to run wild while they waited for a voice to confirm that home was still there.

They were Special Ops, meaning they did the work that many couldn't do and didn't get to hear about. That meant long stretches of time away from the resistance base they called home.

It also made for lonely work.

Despite the fact they enjoyed each others company, arguments and old complaints often arose after a while, which was then followed by a mutual no-conversation agreement.

So it was nice to hear from someone else.

Anyone else.

"Bat 1, this is Oracle 1, go ahead." The smaller man couldn't help noticing his friend and mentor smile, nobody else would call it a smile by the broadest stretch of the imagination, because he never smiled in the normal sense of the word.

Most of the time his face was set in a scowl, usually reserved for anything he found unpleasant or anything that angered him. The rest of the time his face had the look of grim determination.

You had to know what to look for.

In the case of the large, powerfully built, quiet man, the indicators were eyebrows raised just enough so the facial muscles relaxed and the corners of his mouth arched ever so slightly upwards so as to give him the look of tired neutrality to a stranger. Anyone who knew him well enough saw it for what it was.

"Oracle 1, This is Bat 1, requesting a weather report." Though it was nearly impossible to tell through the comms frequency scrambling, the voice reminded them of everything from home. Contained in each word came warmth, dark humour and a certain amount of wild spirit that always raised theirs.

Many teams took great comfort from knowing that they were being "watched over." In a world with little hope or comfort to offer this was a great help to the men and women in the field. Knowing someone back home was looking out for them.

"Bat 1, this Oracle 1, dark night, I say again, dark night." The look the 2 men shared was enough to communicate that their day had improved. Every team had their own set of codes, dark night was the all clear. Meaning no red lights from endos, or searchlights from hunter-killers. In short, no machine presence in the sector.

"Copy that Oracle 1, Bat 1 out." The 2 men moved without sound, all but invisible, just another shadow in the night, communicating with hand signals as they went.

For Sergeant Major Bruce Wayne and Private Jason Todd, it was time to go home.


	2. Chapter 1

Exiles 2.01 by LongRider

Chapter 1

When they finally reached the series of tunnels that led to their home base, they had to put on their night vision goggles. The mere fact that this particular piece of equipment was available to them signified the importance of their work.

The fact that they each had a set increased this importance exponentially. Specialist equipment was rare and it could be expected that one such piece would be shared between an entire battalion.

Being on General Connors hand picked special forces list had its perks.

But in a world where nothing was wasted and everything was needed, there was a certain amount of jealousy that came from the _normal_ soldiers and didn't go unnoticed by the _special_ soldiers.

Mainly due to the efforts of a certain soldier who put in a lot of sentry duty.

After spending the better part of twelve hours walking a route through the labyrinth of tunnels (which included doubling back several times to be absolutely certain they weren't being followed) they came upon the threshold of the base.

Now all they had to do was make it inside without the usual grief Sergeant Bullock gave them.

"Well, well, if it ain't Wayne and Todd, back from another secret mission."

"Hello Sergeant." Came Waynes usual crisp reply.

"Whassamatta! Your oh so secret mission go belly up again?"

"As a matter of fact Bullock we . . ." Todds anger had gotten the better of him again and if not for Waynes hand on his shoulder he would have finished his sentence.

"You know the rules Sergeant." Waynes voice had taken on a decidedly lethal edge.

"You don't ask us, we don't tell you." Bullock snorted at the attitude he was getting from _these two hotshots_.

"Oh really! Maybe I don't believe you, maybe I don't believe you guys are the hotshots Captain Gordon says you are, maybe you guys are spys for the other side. I've seen the barcodes burned into your forearm, maybe the machines . . ." Wayne and Todd tuned out Bullocks rant, this was old news to them, Bullock gave a variation of this speech every time he was working sentry.

Everybody had a thoroughly developed sense of paranoia, it came hand in hand with sleep deprivation and having to be suspicious of everything in this world, but Sergeant Harvey Bullock, self proclaimed backbone of the resistance could set new records with his paranoid fantasies.

"Hey! Montoya! Bring over the dogs, I want them checked again." At this Bullocks long suffering partner could only gape at the mans unspoken accusation, she would have defended the two exhausted men if one of them hadn't jumped in first.

Bullock never saw what happened, the shock dulled his senses for the first few moments. First came the warm and numb tingling sensation in the left side of his face, followed by cold pressure on his back, it was only after tasting his own blood that he realised he was looking at the ceiling. From the floor.

Anger boiled to the surface, Bullock made a grab for his sidearm, (it wasn't there_)_ looking around he saw a fuming Todd standing at his feet, _the kid looks like he wants to have a go himself, _to the side he saw Wayne, holding his missing sidearm.

"Give me my gun Wayne." Wayne didn't move.

"I'd watch myself if I were you Sergeant. I'd also forget about this. Can't let anyone know that the backbone of the resistance got caught flat-footed by a hotshot Private." The retort died in Bullocks mouth when he realised what Wayne was saying.

_Todd decked me! not Wayne._

Wayne he could live with, the man was over six feet tall and made of dense muscle. Anyone in the resistance would readily bet the man could probably go toe to toe with a terminator in hand to hand and live.

_But the kid?_

The kid was barely five foot and looked all of ten years old in the baggy fatigues he wore. No way in this life or the next could Harvey Bullock put up with that smear on his reputation.

"I think you should listen to the man Harvey." Bullock groaned at the sound of Renes voice from behind him. _Fantastic! She'll never forget this either._ Finding no other way out Bullock simply nodded and rose to his feet, missing Wayne's nod to Montoya as he handed her the gun before leading Todd away.

"Damn hotshots, prancing about like they think they own the place . . ." This time Montoya tuned out her partner, she was getting surprisingly good at it. She settled for watching the two exhausted men walk away, _maybe Wayne could use a new soldier on his team,_ true the man was cold and aloof to friend and foe alike, but he always came back from every assignment General Connor gave him, _the man got results,_ there was no doubting that, what was in doubt was the man himself, nobody seemed to know much about the taciturn Sergeant Major Wayne. In fact, only a handful of people did and they were as tight-lipped as it got in the resistance, giving rise to all manner of rumours, rumours which Montoya made it a point to listen out for.

Most were likely to be the usual tall tales that soldiers told in the mess to keep each other entertained. But some had weight, such as the one that placed the man in a Skynet camp, supposedly to test the limitations of humans in order to find their weaknesses, the burned in barcode on his left forearm easily corroborated that, _except,_ Montoya thought, _the man didn't have any weaknesses._

There was another rumour that he had been all over the world training with various mentors and organisations before the war began, _but that was a silly notion,_ it would have meant that he knew the war was coming.

Another plausible rumour was that the man was a metahuman, _he seemed to be able to accomplish __the impossible._ Another was that he possessed enough tech knowledge to incur Major Fries' constant requests to have him transferred to the R&D division of Tech-Com.

Montoya took a swig from her canteen and decided to consider only the facts as Captain Gordon had taught her. What was **known** and **corroborated.**

Wayne had been in a Skynet Camp. Was raised by that British Captain . . . Pennyworth was his name. Had been a Training Sergeant for most of the special forces teams. Knew enough about tactics, weapons and Skynets machines to make a lot of people jealous. Should be an officer and had never failed a mission.

Montoya decided to be honest with herself, like Connor, the man was a legend in the resistance, whom she found fascinating, he had a kind of magnetism that either attracted or repelled people and in her case it certainly . . . _Don't go there Rene! Best to leave that one alone and get back to work!_

xxXxx

Once they were far away from prying eyes Wayne finally turned to face his partner.

"You shouldn't have hit him." Todd stopped to look at his friend and mentor.

"He was being an ass! Besides it was worth it to see the look on his face, c'mon Bruce! He was out of line!" Wayne nodded at the last statement. But only the last statement.

"He was, but that still doesn't excuse what you did Jason, you lost control back there." Todd sighed at this, acknowledging his mistake.

"You gonna make me apologize?" Again he saw his friends all too brief smile.

"Sergeant Bullock wants to forget the whole thing, there's no sense reminding him further, besides, a forced apology isn't worth a thing. Here." He said, handing Todd his pack.

"Go and find Alfred, I have to report to Captain Gordon." Todd ran off to find his favourite officer. Both packs bouncing on his back with every step.

Wayne continued on to the operations centre, knowing that Captain Gordon would be there unless Doctor Thompkins had chased him out to get some sleep again. He was thinking about his report when a familiar voice penetrated his thoughts.

"Hey! Don't I even rate a hello Barbara!"

"Hello Barbara." Wayne parroted before turning to his field handler.

"You look awful." She said as she pushed away from the wall. Wayne snorted in response. Barbara Gordon regarded him with a barely contained smile. She raised an eyebrow in question.

"Long op." It was Waynes typical reply when Barbara tried to start a conversation. Wayne was bad at small talk and always tried to avoid it, preferring, when he did speak, to talk about the work at hand.

There was also another reason he tried to avoid talking with Barbara without using a comms kit. Every time they spoke, one of two subjects inevitably came up. One was her repeated attempts to get Wayne talking about his past field partner, Dick Grayson and what happened between them. The other was Barbaras repeated attempts to get herself assigned to a field team.

Inwardly Wayne hoped she would stop trying. Ever since he had known her it was made painfully clear that she wanted field ops, but since her father was the Captain of this particular region, it meant that he had enough pull to keep her on base assignments.

Barbara wasn't aware of this because Captain Gordon always gave any new team leaders _the talk_ making it clear in no uncertain terms what would happen if his _little girl _found her way onto their field team.

Wayne was certain the younger woman had her suspicions, but until she actually said as much he couldn't tell her about the promise he and so many others had made to Jim. _Jim,_ Wayne thought about the fact that he was on first name terms with the Captain, that was something of an oddity in itself. As far as he knew, not many Sergeants could count a Captain as a friend, _much less a close personal one._ Wayne turned to the younger Gordon and waited for the inevitable.

"So, when will you let me join your team?" As always the question was asked with an expression of half joke, half guarded hope and as much as Wayne hated to dash the hopes of the very capable woman before him _again,_ it really was for the best.

"When the war is over." Wayne waited for Barbara to rant about how she was expertly trained, how her instructors had graded her and how she was better at what was needed than most of the others who went out to fight the machines.

"Hmph." Was all that Barbara gave to the denial of her request, _good for you Barbara,_ Wayne thought as she went up in his estimation yet again.

"I've got to talk to you father." Barbara nodded in acceptance, Wayne turned and continued to the operations centre to see Captain Gordon.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When Todd finally reached the area specifically for Wayne and his team, better known as 'the cave', he could hear Alfred talking with somebody.

When he rounded the corner he saw who.

Richard Grayson.

Jason Todd's predecessor as Bruce's apprentice and field partner.

They had never actually met. Alfred had mentioned that Grayson and Bruce had some sort of falling out and had since refused to speak to each other.

When Grayson noticed Todd he quickly said his goodbyes to Alfred and left while giving Todd a nod of acknowledgement on his way out.

Jason turned to Alfred with a questioning look. "That was Grayson wasn't it?"

The words had come out sounding harsher than intended, Jason knew there was bad blood between the man and Bruce, but he also felt his loyalty to Bruce incontestable.

And here was Alfred, one of the few men Bruce trusted, talking to a man who had crossed him.

"Yes." came Alfred's reply, as always his voice was crisp and exact, it was impossible to discern anything other than dry wit from the tone.

If there was one constant in this life, it was Alfred Pennyworth was a gentleman no matter the circumstances.

He never betrayed any confidences or people.

Despite how much Todd felt like disputing the last one.

"He came to see me, the fact that he doesn't feel welcome here when Sergeant Major Wayne is on base has nothing to do with you." The advice was old, but the meaning was clear.

_Butt out kid._ Of course stuffy, proper, British Captain Pennyworth, retired, would never say those words. The matter was private, if Bruce wanted Jason to know he would tell him.

Until then Jason could wonder about the exact nature of the falling out all he liked.

"Is the Sergeant Major going to be late?" Alfred inquired.

"No, he's just giving Gordon . . ."

"Captain Gordon" Alfred corrected, there was no room for disagreement in his eyes.

"Captain Gordon, his report. I'm sure he'll be here soon" Jason finished.

"Possibly not." there was a hint of mischief in Alfred's eyes, Jason immediately gave up any pretence of guessing what Alfred was hinting at. _Have your fun old man._

"Go on, I give in, why not?" A look of pure delight passed across his features as Alfred revealed his secret.

"It turns out our miss Cassandra is looking for him as we speak."

"Batgirl?" Jason blurted out in response.

"Ah yes, our very own mascot." Alfred let out a small chuckle as he took the packs off Jason and set them down on a work table.

Jason sat and watched him as he emptied out the packs, meticulously inspecting each individual piece of equipment before moving on the next.

Jason allowed his thoughts to wonder to 'Batgirl'.

The name had come about because of another of Sergeant Bullocks insults, but it was a badge of honour as far as the owner was concerned.

They didn't know her real name for certain, she didn't talk, she hadn't talked in the entire time they'd known her.

Cassandra had come into their lives by accident. Bruce and Jason had been out in the field on assignment at the time, they'd stopped to rest up for a few hours and had found her sitting huddled up by the body of a dead soldier whose uniform had Cain stencilled on the chest.

Jason had tried to move her away and had received a mean right hook to the jaw for his trouble.

When Bruce tried she'd fought like a wildcat.

Bruce batted it all aside like so much dust, this had surprised the girl because Jason reckoned she had to be a metahuman to be that scrawny and move that fast.

So while Jason was counting his teeth with his tongue _she hit like a truck! _Bruce and the girl were moving back and forth, trading punches and kicks until she stopped and stared at her opponent with an inquisitive little head tilt.

After a few moments Bruce offered her his hand.

Seemingly satisfied with the offer, she accepted it and allowed them to lead her to the safety of the base.

Since then she had adopted them as her family.

Jason and Bruce couldn't expect to go more than an hour on base before she'd find them, _which was weird, because she always seemed to know when they got back. _

Alfred had been delighted with the girl, because this presented him with another thing to pretend to pester Bruce with. _"Another mouth to feed, you do know most men get married before starting a family? And she will not be called Batgirl I'll have you all know, we'll simply find a name she likes and that will be that."_

Not that it had mattered, their adopted girl answered to both Batgirl and Cassandra. She still wouldn't talk, but every now and then Jason would catch her trying to form the words despite the lack of sound.

It became something of a game trying to get her to talk, she would sit facing Jason and Alfred while they tried to encourage her to say words by sounding them out clearly and slowly. _And every time she shook her head no at them._

The entire time Jason thought she found this hilarious because she would beam the biggest smile at them. Finding their antics both ridiculous and entertaining. _Who knew speaking was so funny_.

Bruce was probably on the receiving end of that smile right now.

XxXxx

That familiar feeling was back.

While his other five senses told him nothing was wrong, his well formed sixth sense demanded he be alert.

Bruce knew he was being followed, he knew who his follower was and he knew exactly what to do.

He froze on the spot and waited.

Within seconds a figure sprang out of the shadows and collided into his chest, wrapping surprisingly strong arms and legs around his torso, looked up into his eyes and blinded him with a beaming smile of delight.

XxXxx

Minutes later, Bruce was being led by Cassandra who was insistently tugging on the arm she had locked in her grip.

Cassandra knew that whenever Wayne came back to the base that he reported directly to Gordon.

She knew it was their routine and honestly believed that if she got Wayne to Gordon faster, then he would leave Gordon faster so that she could spend time with him.

It was this sight that greeted the perpetually tired Captain Jim Gordon.

"She found you then?" Gordon couldn't help smiling at them. The legendary Sergeant Major Wayne, who surrendered to no-thing and no-one, man and machine alike, being led by the arm by the little girl who wanted nothing more than his company and his approval.

Looking into Cassandra's face Gordon could read the proud expression which said _My dad's home, so hurry up._

Bruce managed to untangle his arm from Cassandra's two armed grip and once he had convinced her to wait outside _she refused to leave _followed Gordon into the briefing room to give his report.

xxXxx

After leaving Alfred and the Todd kid to their own devices Richard Grayson, or Dick to his friends, headed to the communications centre to find her.

Barbara Gordon.

Oracle 1.

The Captains daughter.

The most annoying, contradictory, infuriating, passionate, beautiful, caring woman Dick had ever met.

When he was honest with himself, Dick would admit she was his first and true love. That she had been since he met her so many years ago.

He had been found by Bruce and Gordon, _back when Gordon still went out on regular patrols, _in what had been a zoo with nothing but a small stuffed elephant and the clothes on his back.

Bruce had taken him in and not too long after that his training had started.

But more importantly, Dick had met Barbara for the first time at the base hospital.

It had been when Bruce had brought back a wounded Gordon one day and Dick, too curious to stop himself had snuck into the then Lieutenant's room to see.

Expecting to find Gordon alone he had been surprised to find a teary eyed girl with vibrant red hair.

She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Dick chuckled to himself as he recalled their first conversation.

"Who are you?" they had said in unison. When the beautiful girl couldn't control her sobbing he continued.

"I'm Richard Grayson, but everyone calls me Dick, what's your name?" he had waited patiently for her to reply, because Alfred always told him that being patient was part of having good manners, eventually she answered.

"Barbara Gordon, but everyone calls me Babs, what are you doing here?" she had seemed angry but at what Dick was not certain, but eager to keep talking to this girl he continued.

"I wanted to see if mister Gordon was okay, no-one will tell me." he looked into her green eyes, he had never seen green eyes before, but then he was only eight and as Alfred had often told him, still had lots to see and learn and right now he wanted to see and learn all he could about this girl with the red hair and green eyes.

Dick chuckled again as he entered the communications centre. He would always want to see and learn all about his red haired, green eyed girl.


End file.
